Happy Birthday My Dear Son!

Our son arrived yesterday into this world with a high-five at 1:56 p.m., weighing 7 lbs 4 oz, measuring 20 inches long.  

My water broke (literally a gush of water like in the movies) soon after I woke up from sleeping in until 9:15am.  He csme into this world just about five hours later.  It was my first day of maternity leave and I was planning on spending it reading all the workbooks we received from our baby classes, laying at our pool, lunching with friends, and getting a Mani/pedi.  Henry had other plans.

Hubbt and I are so in love and happy with our little pumpkin.  More to come.

Decreased Fetal Movement

Baby Mac has taken after his parents in one aspect throughout most of the pregnancy: he can't sit still.  He is always moving around, kicking, sucking is thumb, shaking his head -- which is very reassuring for me.  Its the sign of a healthy baby.  In the last few weeks of pregnancy however, the baby starts running out of room, and sometimes oxygen.  Pregnant women are told to monitor these kicks more frequently and consistently.  In my case, because my amniotic fluid has been consistently low and because of our two vessel cord, my doctor has stressed that should I feel any decreased fetal movement, or any sort of change in pattern of his movements, that I should notify her immediately. 

So yesterday, after a good 10 hours of not feeling ANY movement, I knew it was time to give her a call.  I did everything she told me to do beforehand: drank gallons of cold juice, ate, changed positions and laid in a dark room on my side waiting to feel and monitor kicks -- all to no avail.   I finally called worried, and she asked me to come to the hospital, again, to get the stress test done.  And so that's how my hubby and I spent our last Saturday night without baby, back at the hospital.  You win baby Mac, you are the boss.

After an hour or so of monitoring, it turned out baby Mac was just as healthy as ever, but that since my fluid is lower, its possibly I am not feeling the kicks as much.  Its still not low enough to deliver though, so we are hoping he hangs in tight and stays in utero until Friday - his scheduled C Section date.

On a positive note, since we were only in the hospital a couple of hours, we were able to salvage part of last weekend night together, and managed to go to dinner and a movie after the hospital, Captain Phillips (which was excellent).  We figured if we are going to hire a sitter, we'd rather go out somewhere with friends, so most likely it would be a while since we saw a movie in the theaters after the baby comes. 

So it begins, our last week child-free.  It is seriously terrifying.  I am savoring every last minute of sleep I get, every moment of silence I have, and every movement of freedom I feel.  D-Day is fast approaching.

FINAL Pre-Natal Appointment!

One more week until my scheduled cesarean section.  Never thought I'd have that - a scheduled cesarean.  I'd been preparing myself with books, videos and classes for a vaginal delivery since the beginning.  But at this point, I get it,  the BABY is the boss.  He is already ruling this mama.  And that's okay.  I am finding peace with it.  There ARE benefits.

Just got back from my 38.5 week appointment, and of course he is still breech.  But more exciting is that I am 80% effaced and 1.5cm dilated!  His bum is down, and the nurse said she felt it when she examined me.  Anyway, this means my body is working and preparing for delivery, which is exciting.  There is a chance I'll go into labor on my own before the cesarean, but I do hope he waits -  I'm a bit of a planner and would like to see this well organized Baby Mac.  Work with me here and wait until Oct 18th :) 

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is my husband's birthday, his last before Baby Mac arrives - and we spent it assembling strollers, installing car seats, and getting the guestroom ready for our mothers.   On the flip side, he also is out with his guy friends all night, with no nagging from me.  I love him more each day, if that's even possible, and I have no doubt that love will grow even more seeing him with our son.  Happy birthday to the best thing that's ever happened to me, my wonderful husband!  He always tells me that my dreams are coming true with the impending arrival with our baby, but what he doesn't know is they all came true the moment I met him. Everything else is icing on the cake.

Cesarian is Scheduled

Friday, October 18, 2013 at 12:30 PM. 

OUCH! My Unsuccessful External Cephalic Version

I've known that my son is breech for months now.  In fact, not only is he breech (head up) but he's been stuck in the same exact position the whole time, with his big head (90th percentile) stuck under my right rib.  Sometimes, this causes me great discomfort and even bars me from walking.  So I've been acutely aware of his placement for quite some time.

My doctor recommended that she perform an external cephalic version (or just "Version") to try to manually turn him around to help guide his head toward the birth canal, or down.  This procedure is performed around 36-37 weeks and as I am already 37 weeks she scheduled it right away, and it was yesterday.  My doctor was optimistic:  in fact, she has one of the highest successful version rates in Houston, and told me that although my amniotic fluid was still low, it was plenty enough to perform this procedure.  I on the other hand, just KNEW, it was not going to work.  This little stinker is already stubborn like his daddy, and I just knew he was not going to let us push him around. 

But we went for it.  In hopes of a vaginal delivery, my preferred delivery method, my husband and I checked into the hospital yesterday at 5:30 AM and waited for the doctor to arrive around 7am.  She explained the risks one more time (rupture, delivery, etc), and then proceeded to give me medicine that relaxed my uterus.  Please note, this was NOT pain medication.  In fact it was the opposite.  Although it "relaxed" my uterus, it totally made me crazy.  Within minutes, my whole body was trembling, my teeth were chattering, my speech was shaking.  I felt like an addict on recovery - my heart was beating out of control.  All the while, my doctor was telling me to take deep breaths and relax.  It was IMPOSSIBLE.

I grabbed onto my husband's hands, and literally squeezed them for dear life as the doctor got to work.  It was one of the most painful experiences to date.  She literally put all her body weight and fingers to dive into my stomach and manually grab ahold of the baby's head and butt through the res of my organs, applying constant pressure and molding him to turn around.  She was making progress, and finally got his head out from under the rib so that he lay horizontal, but she was having trouble getting his head down from that spot.  It felt like something was tight, the spot was tight.  She kept on asking me to breathe and told me I was doing well, but I'll be honest with you all.  I was NOT okay.  This whole time, I was SCREAMING at the top of my lungs, my legs were flailing (the nurses were trying to keep them down), I was digging my fingernails into hubby's hands yelling at him to help.  

If you Google, external cephalic version, on YouTube, you will see all these women totally normal, talking about their days, while their doctor's perform the procedure.  Either they are ROBOTS, or I have absolutely no pain tolerance. Frankly, it embarrasses me that I reacted the way I did, because if these YouTube videos are the norm, my doctor must think I am verifiably CRAZY.

The doctor tried and tried to get him down from his horizontal position, but at this point, I was so sorely bruised and in pain, I just couldn't do it anymore.  So it ended.  Unsuccessfully.  The doctor asked me to schedule a C Section with her in two weeks and that's how we got back to where we were in the beginning.  After all that work, baby Mac is just going to get his way.  There is still a small chance he could turn on his own before the scheduled C Section, but I am doubtful of it.

NOT as simple as this picture makes it out. 

I stayed in the hospital for about 3-4 more hours, as both the baby and I were monitored to make sure we were doing fine after the trauma.  I ordered breakfast, watched some TV, went home and passed out exhausted for the rest of the day.  I was hoping to get furloughed (with the Government shutdown starting today), but my Agency elected to keep on working until our existing funds run out.  No idea when that will be, so here I am back at work, sore, tired, shaken and waiting for baby Mac who we now expect to arrive within the next two weeks!